Vech. Pilot Armor

[Warborn]

Originally Posted by Senyu

Isn't that kinda cheating the game a little?

You can also exit aircraft mid-air to break the lock missiles have on you, and then re-enter it and keep flying.

Don't think of the game as being about fairness or "realism", or even it being like Planetside 1. It's Battlefield 1942 with leopard suits.

[The Kush]

Originally Posted by Zhane

I think Engineer will be the driver/pilot class of choice in the long run. I'd rather be able to land and repair than bail out for free.

Agreed

[FastAndFree]

Originally Posted by Warborn

You can also exit aircraft mid-air to break the lock missiles have on you, and then re-enter it and keep flying.

Why would that break missile lock?

[SztEltviz]

Originally Posted by RovingDeath

I don't see any problem with light assault with jetpacks piloting vehicles, but this thread just gave me a thought:

Jetpack + ATV + Ramp = OMG!!!

is BACK!

[Otleaz]

Originally Posted by Azren

any serious pilot/driver will be engineer, the rest will be easy kills anyway, so why worry?

The REALLY serious pilots will be HA, flying till the last second and then taking the air to air combat further by taking their enemy out with a rocket launcher on the way down

[Xyntech]

Originally Posted by Otleaz

The REALLY serious pilots will be HA, flying till the last second and then taking the air to air combat further by taking their enemy out with a rocket launcher on the way down

Rocket launchers will scare fighters away, but rarely kill them unless the pilot is stupid. Besides, there still is a possibility that HA may not even be able to drive/fly some vehicles, so it may not even be possible.

If we see air repair pads make a return, I think fighter pilots will tend to go LA at least as often as engi, if not more often. Fighters are fast enough to quickly fly to a repair point, so why not do that instead of landing and getting out? LA also allows bailing without taking up a valuable slot, and bailing is important if you want to provide rapid infantry response in addition to air support. I'd prefer to avoid using the bailing certs or the auto-repair certs if I can avoid it.

For me, I just want to play Light Assault in general even when not piloting, so there are multiple reasons why I'll be flying my Scythe as a LA.

[Khrakhan]

Originally Posted by Otleaz

The REALLY serious pilots will be HA, flying till the last second and then taking the air to air combat further by taking their enemy out with a rocket launcher on the way down

probably not the best idea, but i gotta say...i like you thinkin! :P

[FastAndFree]

Originally Posted by Otleaz

The REALLY serious pilots will be HA, flying till the last second and then taking the air to air combat further by taking their enemy out with a rocket launcher on the way down

With the decreased TTK on aircraft and the fact that bailing does not launch you straight down anymore but makes you "drift" a bit along the plane because of your momentum I look forward to silly HA people bailing out and then dying when their plane blows up while they are waiting for lock-on

[Azren]

Originally Posted by Otleaz

The REALLY serious pilots will be HA, flying till the last second and then taking the air to air combat further by taking their enemy out with a rocket launcher on the way down

This was funny, but no. Take PS1 as reference. Even the best pilot takes damage during attack runs, after a run or two the craft will be too low on armor for another run. At this point you either get a new plane (which takes time) or fix it with the glue gun.
In PS2 apart from being absent from the battlefield while you spawn your new craft (and wait for it's cooldown), you will also have to pay for them. All in all, if it is setup right, you will want to avoid losing the planes.

Same goes for all vehicles (aprart from the Flash)

[Talek Krell]

I'd support the implementation of a flight suit, but I'm not currently thinking that LA will be that much of an issue.

It does give you a lot of escape potential though, and it's definitely something that I will be attempting to abuse the shit out of during beta.

[Vexus]

Since we have no parachutes in PS2, how about issuing everyone in the plane a single-cycle jump jet to assist bailing? It would work like a regular jump jet, using fuel, but it wouldn't recharge so once the fuel is expended--or you hit land of any kind--it is depleted and disappears. THAT could be a part of your flight suit cert tree as a pilot, and a lesser rudimentary cert of like 2 cert points for non-pilots to use it.

That wouldn't allow getting from the ground to the 2nd floor, but it would allow safe'ish bailing, and work kinda like skeet-shooting for opposing ground troops much as the parachute does today.

I bet it would whet the appetite for many people to play their light assault roles too.